Display illumination devices, such as micro display projectors, use separate components of light, e.g., red, green, and blue components, and combine the separate components at the display. For example, in some display systems, light from a white high intensity discharge lamp is split into red, green, and blue channels using, e.g., dichroic mirrors, and the separate channels are sent to the corresponding display by the use of a mirror system. Alternatively, a color wheel is used to obtain the desired red, green, and blue components, from the white light, and the display is synchronized with the illuminator color. Starting from white light, however, is disadvantageous as such systems are typically bulky and inefficient.
Some display systems use high powered light emitting diodes (LEDs) that emit red, green and blue light. Generally, however, display illumination devices that combine the colored light emitted from separate light emitting diodes are bulky and require many piece parts. Thus, assembly is time consuming and prone to alignment error.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved illumination device, e.g., that can be formed with a small footprint with a minimal number of piece parts.